Shabby cottage chic meets french country cottage in my living room redo

The living room is almost finished!  Ok, it looks finished and, right now, it needs to be finished; however, I'm sure there will be tweaking in the near future....Who am I kidding? There will definitely be tweaking (before I even posted this, I'd already changed some things! Look closely and you'll see some differences between some of the "after" pictures!) Anyway, on to the present.

Here are the "befores" and "afters":

 

 Really all I did in this room was paint, clean and move in!  Unfortunately, we ran out of the reno budget sooner than we thought thanks to some unplanned expenses (might I suggest, to anyone renovating an old home, a fairly large contingency fund...) and were not able to refinish the floors.  I've justified it by telling myself we have young children and a large dog, so why bother? They'll just rescratch them.  That worked for about a week.  It's back to driving me crazy. 

My cluttered English-country-cottage-cozy decorating for the window seats under each window flanking the fireplace until I can afford built-in glass door bookcases (or figure out how to build them myself).  

This house is an exercise in patience and decorating in stages.  Not being a patient person, I'm finding it incredibly challenging....  Built-in bookcases are stage 2, or 3.  Translation - we're out of money and it's going to be awhile:(

After pictures of the kitchen. Finally.

Time for some after pics of the kitchen! 

Lest I forget, a "before" reminder:

LOVE having the stove moved to the outside wall!  HUGE difference!  Finally a gas stove too -- it's been on my "dream kitchen wish list" for 4 houses now.  Simply put, it's awesome:)

My big splurge -- the long-dreamt about farmhouse sink.... so happy with it!  I found the fabric for the sink skirt on Ebay, the wool rug at an area antique store and the island was a long-ago purchase from my years in New York.  So wonderful when everything comes together!

I was a little worried about loosing that window, but really don't miss it now.  We added a mudroom on to the back where there was just a small open porch before so the window really had to go. I've been adding various open shelving ideas to my Pinterest account for such a long time, I just knew this was the perfect spot for them.  The silver could stand some polishing I see....

Pricing breakdown to follow.  When I find it.....